I was an agency freshman.
The year was 2016, online advertising was blowing up, and everyone thought “There’s a lot of money to be made here.” But like many consultants, advisors and service providers, we only saw part of the equation.
It took me four years to realize what I’d signed up for.
The complicated reality of providing great service
Here’s the thing:
being a good partner isn’t enough.
If it were, business would be simpler.
We think it’s all about the outcome. We think if we help clients make or save money, dodge a bullet, or avoid the most painful consequences of problems they can’t see, they’ll stay forever and even refer their friends and family. But the reality is different.
First, clients are constantly being sold by competitors.
Their golf buddy started a business and promised them the world. Their new son in law does work on the side. A Linkedin “Influencer” with half your experience made them a pitch that sounded great. Usually, clients consider all these offers without even telling you.
Clients also leave for relative performance.
This especially applies to consultants and advisors. You can have a good track record, and the client can still expect more and leave. Their portfolio grew 10% a year, but they left because the stock market did better, even though they'd asked for a safer mix. Your campaigns brought in an extra $20k, but they expected at least $30k, so they walked.
Clients could leave for cheaper prices.
Some marketing agency pitches your client on a lower retainer. An online brokerage or index fund offers to save 50 basis points. You can save your clients from countless scams, save them money on taxes, and talk them out of panic selling. But the fact remains that someone doing it for half the price will always be appealing.
You can do a great job for 20 years.
And a client might still leave you for something that makes no sense.
The art of setting expectations
I remember pitching an eye doctor on Google Ads.
He listened through the entire slide deck, and paid an hour later.
I thought I did a great job.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. From the minute we started working together, he kept asking for deliverables he didn’t pay for, along with a million questions that didn’t make sense. He called every day to make sure campaigns “perform”, and kept telling me how great his sales reps were, when in reality some of them could barely close.
We did a ton of work for him.
He made sales and had a fairly good ROI for a new campaign.
He still left after a month.
I could have blamed the client. That would have been the easy thing to do. But the truth is, it was my fault. I messed up the sales call, before the relationship even started. I sold the client on the great outcomes he’d achieve, but I didn’t set any expectations.
I should have been clearer.
I should have said, “Dear client, here’s the problem we’re going to solve. Here are the deliverables you’re going to get. Here’s the outcome you can expect. It will take three months to achieve it. Results aren’t guaranteed.”
Expectation setting should be part of your sales process.
Otherwise you’re asking for trouble.
Better to set expectations and sell less, than to skip that step and sell to the wrong prospects.
Keep selling after they become clients
Tell clients about everything you do for them.
Don’t shy away from getting credit. If you do great work but don’t tell clients about it, they might notice, or might not. I suggest you assume the latter. This absolutely includes the things you do for free. The 10 hours of planning you didn’t charge for, the fees you waived, and anything else they might take for granted.
My boss was a master at client management.
He always preached leading the way, setting expectations, and letting clients know how you help them. When you’re a rookie, you don’t realize how important these things are. But selling is an ongoing process. I think most clients are quietly asking, “What have they done for me lately?”
If everything works well and you don’t come up with new ideas, they’re going to assume they don’t need you.
Conclusion
Providing great service is crucial and should always be the priority. But the game doesn’t end there. We should also sell to the right clients—and then build that relationship correctly. Set expectations and share with clients everything you do for them. If you solve your clients’ problems, if they’re getting the outcomes you’ve sold them on, and you do everything you possibly can to keep them happy, you’ve done your job.